Election official allegedly used list improperly

Mark Ritchie, the state's chief election official, was accused on Monday of improperly using a list of participants in a Secretary of State civic engagement program to solicit contributions for his own political campaign.

In a complaint to the Minnesota Legislative Auditor, two people said they were asked to participate in the "Civic Education" program earlier this year and provided e-mail addresses and other contact information to the Secretary of State's office. They subsequently received an e-mail newsletter from the Ritchie campaign committee that solicited a political contribution at an upcoming fundraiser.

Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles confirmed his office received the complaint letter on Monday and said his office would conduct a preliminary investigation.

"It certainly falls within our jurisdiction to see whether public money or state assets were used appropriately," Nobles said.

Two Republican state legislators, Rep. Tom Emmer of Delano and Rep. Laura Brod of New Prague, also called for a legislative investigation into DFLer Ritchie's actions through the House Government Operations Committee, calling it a potential "breach of public confidence."

Ritchie, elected last year after campaigning on a platform of de-politicizing the Secretary of State's office, said the list of participants in the civic engagement program is public information that can be accessed by anyone, including a political campaign. But he said he did not authorize the use of the list for his campaign.

The complaint, first reported on the conservative blog Minnesota Democrats Exposed, accused Ritchie of using his office to collect information on prospective donors and transfer the information to his campaign.

The complaint comes from representatives of two conservative or right-leaning organizations, the Taxpayers League of Minnesota and the Citizens in Charge Foundation, which advocates the expanded use of initiative and referendum.

They were asked to be part of an initiative to establish the Minnesota Council for Civic Education and Engagement, an effort by the Secretary of State's office to encourage civic cooperation among a number of groups.

At an initial meeting in April, Mark Giga with the Taxpayers League and John Tomczak with Citizens in Charge were asked to provide names and e-mail addresses on a signup sheet for future correspondence.

"We kind of made a joke that we were the token conservatives there," Giga said.

Giga, director of outreach for the league, said he got an e-mail every five or six weeks about developments with the organization but attended few other meetings beside the original get-together.

Then, on Oct. 22, Tomczak and Giga received an e-mail newsletter from Mark Ritchie's 2010 campaign committee, which listed some of his accomplishments and included a schedule of upcoming events, including a fundraiser to help cover campaign-related expenses.

Giga said he never signed up for Ritchie's campaign newsletter and the only place for Ritchie to have obtained his address was through the civic engagement sign-up sheet.

"Yes, of course, he probably did this under the auspices of his state role, but you'd have to be kind of naive not to think this is some kind of campaign tool," Giga said. "You would think that someone in the Secretary of State's office would realize that it not only looks bad but it might also be unethical. When you're the secretary of state that's a big flashing light."

Ritchie, often a target of the Minnesota Democrats Exposed blog, said he did not authorize use of the civic engagement sign-up sheet for campaign contributions but emphasized that the names of the 600 people are public information.

"There is no crossover, but the list of civic engagement groups is public. It's public information," Ritchie said.

Asked how Giga and Tomczak's names were included in the campaign newsletter if they did not sign up for it, other than through the civic engagement list, Ritchie said: "Well, I don't know about that."

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636

Mark Brunswick • mbrunswick@startribune.com